Curriculum Development of a Nuclear Engineering Course for Human Resources Enhancement in the Kenya Nuclear Energy Program

In order to increase generation capacity from reliable sources, Kenya has proposed to install a low-end nuclear power plant to supplement the envisaged short fall. At the moment, most of the power is generated from hydro and geothermal sources. Although an expansion of geothermal and renewal energy may provide a solution to meet the demand, the advantages of nuclear energy are still regarded as attractive. The success of the proposed program will be dependent on the availability of a well trained manpower. This can initially be sourced as part of the turnkey project but the development of a local training institute would provide higher sustainability. It is for the reason the University of Nairobi has been identified to offer a nuclear engineering degree course. The challenges and proposed solutions are presented in this paper. We have presented a proposed curriculum in Nuclear Engineering that aims to development human resources that would be useful in driving the Kenya Nuclear Power generation strategies. The challenges in the program can be resolved by building linkages with established Universities in Korea under the assistance of the Korea Nuclear Association. Depleting oil and gas reserves give very clear signal that Malaysia needs energy from other sources. This is further exacerbated by the increasing demand for electricity from the industry and domestic users, and rising oil, gas, and coal prices. Nuclear energy is the only best option despite the many worries about safety of NPP and radioactive waste. Despite many challenges the program is still running strong, with the help of many parties from within and outside of the country. To date, more than 60 students have graduated and around 100 are still pursuing their studies in UTM.